I showed up at 7:45 am today for my aff1. went through the objectives with my instructor and was done by 8:20 am. I sat there and waited until 11:30 AM and my instructor was scheduled for another tandem jump, which would make it at least another hour before i got to jump. I got bumped 4 times, my instructor said he was sorry and told me the manager knows i'll back but the tourist doing the tandem are only visiting so they come first. Food for thought. took the day off for this jump to. The worst part is I waited 10 days for "perfect" winds that was good for a beginner learning to land.

Yep sucks out loud !! i THINK I WOULD LOOK FOR ANOTHER DROP ZONE. I did AFF at a busy drop zone (nagambie Australia ) at easter time. ( EASTER SUNDAY 2010) lots of tandems THAT DAY OF COURSE but the manifest also made sure the Affers were catered for as well. To this day I still do not know how Louise did it but she did. (BUSY BUSY DAY)

If you are at a small DZ what you describe is not uncommon, from what I have seen. Not right, but not uncommon.

If you have no other DZ options you might have a talk with them about doing SL or IAD training instead of AFF. If a C-182 goes up with one tandem, that leaves two slots open. A SL instructor and student can go on that load and you will get to jump. Of course if you have double tandems all day that might not work out either. A few tethered jumps and you are doing short solo freefalls. While not as exciting at AFF (maybe) it is a good way to get off the ground and into the sky.

Welcome to the forums! I'm sure the DZO and Instructors are perfectly nice people, but if it were me I'd look for another place to jump if you have that option. You're paying a lot of money too! You are a customer just like those tandem students.

The bad thing is that they told you that your business didn't matter because you WILL be back. Like you didn't have a choice. I would go somewhere else if you had another DZ. The real problem will come in when you have to repeat a level because your were not current.

Pretty much the first thing I remember coming out of our ground school instructor's mouth was "This is a sport that involves a lot of waiting." It DOES get a lot easier once you get out of your early AFF jumps -- once you move down to one instructor it's a lot easier to get a jump in. Especially if your DZ only has a small plane and limited seating.

While your dropzone treated you pretty shabbily considering you took the day off, ultimately every dropzone is a business and needs to make money to pay for the shiny toys we get to play with and the salaries of the staff.

Also keep in mind that you're not dealing with an inflexible machine here either! I wouldn't be surprised if you explained your situation to the manager rationally and calmly, you might be able to negotiate a little something for your wasted effort. A free jump ticket or two or a discounted AFF jump is a small price to pay to avoid having a customer walk away totally pissed off, and most businesses should understand that.

You don't have to have time spent at the dropzone be wasted either. Get a rigger to show you how to pack. Practice putting on and getting out of a student rig and other gear under the supervision of a more experienced skydiver. Talk to other skydivers, pilots and staff. Practice your exits if they have a mock-up rig. Learn as much as you can on the ground. You never know when some little tidbit you pick up "by osmosis" might save you some time, trouble or money!

I talked to the person in charge of training at Skydive Hawaii over the phone and the impression I got was he probably was high on dope and very unprofessional . I talked to pacific intl skydive center Stephanie answered all my questions very professional, so I choose to go with Pacific intl Skydive Hawaii. unfortunately she doesn't make the manifest for the jumps.

I am going to look into attending an actual dive school to get my A license, the price and length of the course is what most concerns me. Currently I am asked to just show up early and hopefully get a jump, they let me make an appointment for the aff course, but for a fun tandem they will make an appointment. That day I have seen people show up no appointment and be put on the second or third plane. I know I have to wait my turn and usually get a jump after waiting a couple of hours.

I looked online Arizona has a skydive school with a nice package deal with lodging, course takes 10-12 days. Will definitely talk to the wife as she is doing the aff course with me!

I showed up at 7:45 am today for my aff1. went through the objectives with my instructor and was done by 8:20 am.

Are you exaggerating this? I don't think that is NEARLY enough time to go through all the basics, the emergency procedures, practice exits, etc... It took me five hours and I wish I had more time. Does this concern anyone else?

I showed up at 7:45 am today for my aff1. went through the objectives with my instructor and was done by 8:20 am.

Are you exaggerating this? I don't think that is NEARLY enough time to go through all the basics, the emergency procedures, practice exits, etc... It took me five hours and I wish I had more time. Does this concern anyone else?

The OP mentioned "waiting 10 days for the winds." That makes me think that the full FJC had already been done, and this was a pre-jump refresher brief.

I did the "ground school" 10 days prior took about 4 hours was a one on one and I read the manual from uspa a couple of times, each aff jump has a briefing and training for that jump. The instructor was very happy with my understanding of what is expected and I felt some what comfortable. This will be my fourth jump and still not to comfortable of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, but it's all good once out the door

Thanks, I read the uspa sim before committing to taking school program so I have a good idea what's expected of me and the objectives that I need to complete to finish. I also, watched a lot of you tube aff videos good and bad to get a total picture of this journey I want to start. I don't want to waste the instructor and schools time and try to be prepared when I show up, by reading the sim manual and going over in my mind what the next aff requirement is.

I showed up at 7:45 am today for my aff1. went through the objectives with my instructor and was done by 8:20 am.

Are you exaggerating this? I don't think that is NEARLY enough time to go through all the basics, the emergency procedures, practice exits, etc... It took me five hours and I wish I had more time. Does this concern anyone else?

I think there's a fine balance between providing you useful information and going straight to information overload. They don't want your brain to crash on the first jump. With the sensory overload, that still happens with some percentage of AFF students. Most of those are OK on their do-over once they know what to expect from the experience.

Of course, if you're ready for more, you can seek out information! The packing crew is quite helpful and approachable. They also have pretty regular packing classes, which is a great way to learn about gear. I actually wish I'd done mine while I was still in the AFF program. Ask the other skydivers what they're doing! So far no one there has yelled at me for asking questions, so jump right in!

If you feel like you need more time in the cutaway harness or want to review safety procedures, talk to your instructors or the folks in manifest. It's your life, so if you don't feel safe jumping then do what you need to do so that you do feel safe jumping!

Quote:

This will be my fourth jump and still not to comfortable of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, but it's all good ounce out the door

You're not alone there! I think that all parts of your mind must be comfortable that you're going to be OK once you exit the aircraft, in order for the door to not be terrifying. Consciously you can accept that the gear will save your life, but until your subconscious accepts that this is true, it's going to try to keep you from going out that door. And the only way it has to do that is to flip the panic switches. At least this was my experience with it, and I was very much OK with climbing out and chilling on the outside of the aircraft on my AFF 4 jump (Which was like 6 or 7 jumps in.)

18 jumps in I can still feel a noticeable difference each time. From the load in to the ride up to the door opening to climbing out and jumping. Each time I feel a bit more relaxed. Still don't think I am on the level of the 1000 jump guys that are in the plane with my by any stretch of my imagination. But it is a lot less terrifying on jump 18 than it was on jump 1,2,3 when the pilot yells DOOR and that door swings up on the little 182 we are crammed in.

Pretty much the first thing I remember coming out of our ground school instructor's mouth was "This is a sport that involves a lot of waiting."

There really is a lot of waiting in this sport, or at least time spent on the ground. That won't ever change. Weather, aircraft issues, big ways and tandems hogging the loads. It actually becomes part of the fun and learning when you turn the tables and realize that being on the ground is a great chance to watch and learn, listen and learn, ask questions and learn.

Some schools will crank out an A license quicker than others. In the long run you might want to accept that being on the ground has its benefits.

skydiving is an investment of both money and time, you can change the ratio between the two. Spend more money to do something in less time OR spend more time to do it in less money. I haven't found any place or solution to do it in less time for less money yet....that would be the holy grail!